


Tears of an Angel

by Paige_Turner36



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anti-August, Anti-Blue Fairy, Anti-Emma, Anti-Her Handsome Hero book, Anti-Herocrites, Anti-Hook, Anti-Moe French, Anti-Regina | the Evil Queen, Anti-Zelena, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, Permanent character death(s), Post-Episode AU: S06E09, Shears of Destiny, Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time), anti-snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 19:38:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21124136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paige_Turner36/pseuds/Paige_Turner36
Summary: Post-6x09. Belle thought she was preventing her son’s fate by isolating Rumple and sending him away. But what she did… only sealed it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hate angst, but this had to be done…
> 
> Canon divergent: 
> 
> The Black Fairy is the evil fairy we meet in 6x09. She never loved Rumple. Or at least up until the point she became the Great Evil her son was destined to destroy or who would destroy him. So she got there first, by cutting his Saviour fate. 
> 
> But when a Saviour dies another will take its place. So she steals all Saviour babies - excluding Emma who became artificially pure because of her parents interference and Aladdin who only became a Saviour after going to the Cave of Wonders – steal their magic when their reach their magical maturity at twenty eight years, which will kill them and they become part of the black stone caverns of the Dark Realm that the children mine for Dark Fairy Dust (refer to song: Dark as a Dungeon). 
> 
> Her goal is to destroy light magic so the Saviour can never threaten her ever again.
> 
> Gideon escapes to Storybrooke to find a way to defeat the Black Fairy and to enact revenge on those who have wronged him and his family. And to meet the mother who abandoned him.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT. This is for fun and not for profit.

_She took him… The Black Fairy…_

Belle ended the call, feeling sick. They had failed. Gideon had been taken by the baby snatching Black Fairy. Rumple’s mother. The mother who had chosen power over love. The mother who had abandoned her own son without so much as naming him. And wasn’t even sorry about it as she threw him to the ground.

_No one knows anything about my pain…_

What pain would she inflict on Gideon? Before Belle could decide what to do, she saw a flash of light appear inside Granny’s. The door open and a hooded figure stepped out. The figure turned and saw her. Belle tensed as it moved towards her, stopped and lowered its hood, revealing…

‘Hello Mother.’

‘Gideon!’ Belle breathed.

It was her son! All grown up! He was okay! She impulsively threw her arms around him and hugged him. Gideon returned the hug, somewhat mechanically.

‘I never stopped believing,’ said Gideon quietly. ‘I always knew we’d find each other again.’

‘My son.’

Belle pulled back to get a proper look at her son. He looked exactly as she had seen him in her dreams. But there was a pain there, which was hardly surprising. The Black Fairy took her baby and hurt him. Now he was all grown up and he was fine. But she would never see her baby again. She had missed everything; his first words, first steps, everything.

‘I’m so sorry this happened to you. This is all my fault. I’m sorry.’

Gideon stopped smiling. ‘Sorry’s not good enough.’

Belle’s smile faded. Before she could blink, Gideon magically slapped her across the face, knocking her out.

When Belle regained consciousness she could smell something burning. She was lying on the floor of her library. All the shelves had been emptied. All her precious books, all her favourite stories, all that history, gone. Then she heard the unmistaken crackling and snapping of fire. She turned and saw her son standing in front of the burning pyre of books. Her copy of _Her Handsome Hero_ held in his gloved hands. Even from here she saw how old it looked judging by the faded, slightly battered cover. The glow of the fire illuminated his haunted face, his dead-eyed stare, unaffected by the fact that he was burning all of his mother’s treasured books.

‘Gideon,’ said Belle weakly, head still spinning, physically and mentally.

‘Gideon was a fairytale,’ said Gideon, speaking his namesake as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. ‘A fairytale no man could ever live up to. So all the men in your life would only ever be a disappointment to you. So we will always be a disappointment in your eyes.’

Gideon raised his gaze from the fire to his mother.

‘I’m curious. What were you expecting, Mother, hmm? A loving tear-soaked reunion? Absolution? You want me to say, “It’s all right, Mother. I forgive you”? Well I don’t. You abandoned me.’

‘No.’ Belle shook her head, struggling to stand up. ‘It was just until I had sorted everything out here, with Rumple –’

‘That was never going to happen.’

‘I did it for you.’

‘You did it for yourself. And to hurt Father, when you left him no choice. You never loved me. Just as you never loved him.’

‘I’m your mother.’

Gideon glared at her. ‘I don’t care.’

Belle looked as though Gideon had slapped her again.

‘All you did was give birth to me. That does not make you my mother. The Black Fairy may have been a sadist, who tortured me, but she changed every nappy, soothed every fever, endured every tantrum. She toughened me up. She made me the man I am today. When I was four she told me to climb the cliff, this sheer face. She made me climb until I was too scared to climb any higher. She held out her arms and told me to jump. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m your mother. I’m here for you. I’ll catch you”. So I jumped. And she moved out of the way.’

‘She – she did what?’ Belle gasped, horrified.

‘I smashed into the ground. I broke this arm –’ Gideon pointed at his left arm. ‘– I shattered my ankle –’ He lifted his right foot. ‘– and I cracked my head on a rock.’ He pushed his brown hair back to show her the white scar. ‘Mother was gone. I crawled all the way back to my cell, aching all over, fighting not to cry, throw up or pass out. Then Mother stood over me and she said, “Now you’ve learnt the most important lesson: you can never trust anyone in this life. Survive – because no one’s going to come for you”.’

‘That’s barbaric,’ said Belle sickened.

‘Best thing she ever did for me. No one came to save me, or any of us. I tried to be a hero, like you wanted. But I wasn’t. I couldn’t save my friend Roderick. Evil doesn’t play by the rules. And neither should we. The real world is dark and selfish and cruel. There is no light and dark. Good and evil. Depends on your point of view. In the end, you do what you can to protect those you love. In the heat of the moment, you do whatever it takes. Because if you don’t people die. Heroes didn’t get me out of the Dark Realm. I did! I saved myself! Don’t you get it? It’s all just a big fairy tale!’

‘Gideon, don’t say that! Heroes do exist!’

‘How would you know? Did you grow up with the Black Fairy as your mother? Did you live all alone in a miserable cell? Did you cry yourself to sleep every night waiting for a hero – a mother – that _never_ came?!’

‘But… but… I’m mother,’ said Belle feebly.

‘Then where were you when I needed you?’

Belle couldn’t answer.

‘I believed you’d come. But you never did. How long before you gave up, hmm? Months? Years? Decades? More likely you watched me fly away and couldn’t remember what what’s-his-name looked like.’

‘It’s barely been a day for me!’ said Belle desperately. ‘You were just a baby! I still remember your beautiful brown eyes!’

Gideon regarded her warily. ‘Father’s eyes…’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you hate being reminded of him when you look at me?’

‘Of course not. I’ve always loved Rumple’s eyes.’

‘Just not the rest of him. The good, the bad, not even the version of him you wanted him to be.’

‘He was going to destroy us. You warned me in the Dream World.’

‘_I_ warned you? _Me_? A mere cluster of cells with no opinion of you or Rumplestiltskin – who up until that point…’

Gideon withdrew a crystal ball from within his robes and Belle watched the events from while she was under the Sleeping Curse unfold.

‘…had destroyed the contract without killing anyone, tried to bestow True Love’s Kiss in the Underworld, saved your friends from Grandpa Pan, went to your father – at your request – who flatly refused to even attempt to wake you unless Rumplestiltskin disappeared from our lives for good, forcing Rumplestiltskin to resort to other methods, giving up his kingdom for you, even breaking down the barriers of dreams to free you from the Sleeping Curse. And finally, when he gave you his heart, when he was willing to break his own curse to save you… you stopped the kiss. You could have had happiness if you’d just believed that Rumplestiltskin was choosing love, family, light over power. But you couldn’t take the chance. Because of your stupid pride, you were going to keep us trapped under a Sleeping Curse forever. Even if it meant I would never have been born. Then some ‘person’ appears, claiming to be your son, tells you what you want to hear – gives you an excuse to cut and run – and you believe them over your own husband.’

Gideon lowered the crystal ball and Rumple’s hurt Dark One face disappeared. Belle didn’t know what to say. Seeing her father refusing to wake his own daughter, looking positively gleeful that Rumple’s kiss didn’t work. Seeing what Rumple had gone through to try and save her, how scared and panicked he’d been when Hyde had kidnapped her after Snow White sold her out, even giving up his claim to Storybrooke to find a way to save her… She’d had no idea.

Because she never bothered to ask.

But that still didn’t explain why her son had told her to beware of him and why it sounded as though it was news to him now.

‘Where was your sense-about-people radar then?’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘It was the Black Fairy.’

‘No! We - we shared True Love’s Kiss!’

‘She practically invented Dark Magic, what’s a Sleeping Curse? The Sleeping Curse… The Dark Curse… all the darkness you’ve ever faced, was borne out of one twisted soul. She cannot inhabit this world, but the Netherworld is no problem. You always were easy to manipulate. You may as well have handed me over to her. I begrudge you everything. I will never absolve you. All of it, it’s your fault.

‘I love you,’ Belle implored him.

‘If you loved me, you never would have left me in the first place.’

‘Gideon, please.’ Belle moved forwards so that they stood with the fire between them. ‘I can’t undo what’s been done to you, but the Black Fairy isn’t here now. I am. Whatever damage that woman did to you, it’s in the past. It’s over. No matter what you’ve done, you can always come back to us.’

‘I’m all grown up, Mother. Don’t tell me anymore fairytales. This is the real world, and you need to wake up.’

He threw _Her Handsome Hero_ into the fire.

‘NO!’ Belle screamed.

She watched her favourite book, the first book her mother ever read to her, the book that made her fall in love with reading, reduced to ashes.

_You read too many books, dearie! Maybe that’ll stop filling your head with poisonous thoughts!_

‘I bet you hate me now,’ said Gideon quietly.

Belle gulped back the tears. ‘No… never…’

They could hear running footsteps outside drawing closer and closer to the library.

‘You will,’ her son assured her.

Emma Swan and Snow White burst into the library. They stopped dead when they saw the hooded figure from Emma’s visions. The hooded figure destined to kill her. If Snow was here then Charming was on the nightshift. But where were Regina and Hook?

‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ said Gideon facing them. ‘Did you get lost? Heroes… You wait your whole life for one to show up, and then they all come at once. What’s left of them –’

Emma hit Gideon in the face.

‘Emma! Belle cried.

Emma hit Gideon again.

‘You killed, Killian, you son of a bitch!’ Emma shouted. ‘You killed my True Love!’

‘True Love?’ Gideon spat out a mouth full of blood. ‘Because of the scales test? You a_re _True Love, Saviour. You could’ve pushed Pongo – _anyone_ – out of the fire and they would be your True Love. So are you my sister-in-law or unofficial step-mother-in-law?’

Emma punched him and Gideon hit the floor.

‘Emma, stop! He’s my son!’ Belle shouted desperately.

Emma looked stunned and confused by this revelation, but no less angry. Gideon struggled to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth, his teeth scarlet, glaring at Emma.

‘Do you really think you frighten me?’ Gideon snarled. ‘Do you think anything frightens me? You have no idea what I’ve been through. I was the raised the Black Fairy. Do you know the depths of depravity in her soul? I may not be a hero, but if I don’t stop her, no one will. Hundreds of people are depending on me to save them… children that I swore to protect. So you… you think… you think you’re so righteous? You think I’m the bad guy? You are so far wrong, Saviour.’

Gideon gazed around at the heroes.

‘Look at you, in your little circle. Pretending to be heroes and never expecting to pay a price.’

‘We’ve paid plenty,’ said Snow, her voice trembling with rage.

‘And you will keep paying till you are lost yourselves. I have killed six. Get in my way and I will kill more.’

_Killed? Six?_ Gideon had been in town a few hours and he had already murdered _six_ people.

‘Who else did you kill?’

‘No one who didn’t deserve it. Just those who have wronged me and my family.’

‘_Who else did you kill_?’ Snow demanded.

The crystal ball rose into the air again, showing them Gideon’s victims, who he had stabbed with a black scimitar sword, the dark magic of the sabre reducing them to ash and dust, including the reasons he had killed them.

‘The Blue Fairy – the Fairy Godmother who failed to protect me, who took my brother from Father. Grandpa Maurice – who tried to erase Mother’s memory, who refused to wake her and who would have had me destroyed if he knew his daughter was carrying the Dark One’s seed. The Pirate – who tore apart our family, who shot Mother, who tried to kill her repeatedly, not to mention killed your Charming Grandfather, Saviour. August – who pretended to be Baelfire to steal Father’s dagger. The Wicked Witch – who tortured Father, killed my brother, not to mention killed Marian, raped Robin Hood and would’ve erased you all from time. The Evil Queen – who imprisoned Mother, physically and mentally tortured her, ripped out her heart, sped up her pregnancy, used her to hurt Father – who made it her life’s mission to destroy everyone’s happiness out of spite. It’s all about perspective.’

_Blue… her father – his grandfather… Hook… August… Zelena… Regina… _Belle’s brain couldn’t process it. And killing Regina meant that the Evil Queen side of her that she’d tossed away (the one who had actually accelerated her pregnancy!) was dead too. Her son had murdered six people; sons, mothers, fathers, lovers, friends and he didn’t even care. She did not know what to think.

And Gideon’s words just before he’d killed her father, spoken with such relish, ‘I’ve heard people say death is such a waste. I imagine it more as a relief. What’s it like? How does it feel? Are you afraid? Are you sad? You can tell me.’ Belle did not know which was worse; Gideon mocking their impending doom or that he saw death, even his own, as a relief.

‘You’re a murderer,’ said Snow coldly.

‘As are you, Snow White who killed the Evil Queen’s mother out of vengeance for the death of her handmaiden. Who kidnapped Maleficent’s baby to pour her daughter’s potential darkness into an innocent child, all for the crime of being the daughter of a villain. And sold out Mother and I to Hyde to save your own skins. So, as I said, why don’t we skip the part where you pretend to be righteous?’

‘So why haven’t you killed me? Or my husband?’

‘No need. You’re cursed to never be together again. A fate worse than death. All the same, do not test me. Because I haven’t forgotten you, Saviour.’ Gideon turned to Emma. ‘Dark One or not, you sent the Queen of Dunbroch to assassinate Mother. You were supposed to bring back the Happy Endings. You found time for the Evil Queen, but you left the Stiltskin line to suffer.’

‘So what’re you going to do now?’ said Emma.

‘Whatever it takes stop the Black Fairy. Because I’m the only one who can. You heroes have all the tools, everything except the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank Gods my people aren’t relying on you to save them.’

Gideon vanished in a cloud of amber smoke.

‘So what do we do with him?’ said Emma seriously to her mother.

‘W-what do we do with him?’ Belle repeated.

‘He decimated our family! If the Black Fairy doesn’t kill him, I will!’

‘And I’d be happy to help, we’ve been looking for some mother-daughter bonding,’ said Snow.

Snow White considered killing her son as mother-daughter bonding?

‘Emma, please don’t hurt Gideon,’ Belle begged her. ‘He was not born evil. No, the Black Fairy made him this way. If we help him, though, he will be on the side of good. I-I’m certain.’

‘Belle,’ said Emma plaintively, ‘I can only go with what I see and what I know. Would we be having this conversation if it was Rumplestiltskin? Would you be defending him for cold-blooded murder? I’m sorry, but your son cannot be saved. He’s evil.’

‘Regina was the Evil Queen and you brought her back to the light. You were the Dark Swan. So how does that make Gideon any different?’

‘Because he’s Rumplestiltskin’s son,’ said Emma as if that justified everything. ‘The son of the Dark One. Bad blood will out.’

‘And yet Rumple’s bloodline gave you Neal and Henry,’ Belle reminded her.

‘Belle, I know you want to believe the best in him, but it’s like you said… evil is not born, it is made, and that is exactly what the Black Fairy did to him.’

‘He needs help. You’re a hero, Emma. Gideon is my son.’

‘You can’t keep cleaning up his messes, Belle. He needs to take responsibility for his actions.’

_Like Hook did?_ Belle thought privately. _With you covering up the fact that he had murdered Merlin. Or you stealing our memories to cover up the fact that you turned him into a Dark One when you could’ve ended it?_

‘You were there when he was born. You’re the Saviour. We’re family. Gideon is family. If you won’t help me, I’ll find someone who will. I will do whatever it takes to save him, even if you won’t.’

‘We didn’t start this fight,’ said Snow angrily, glaring daggers at Belle as if she was the enemy. ‘Let’s go.’

Emma and Snow left. Belle took one last look at her burning book. Then she went to find the one person in this town who could help her.

_You may not think that you need me, Belle, but you will…_

_Threats won't make me love you again, Rumple. _

_No. But necessity will._

Rumple will help me, Belle tried to convince herself. He still loves me.

She just hoped she hadn’t burned her last rickety rope bridge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated Post-S3 Ouat. I hated 6A. I hated the baby plotline. I hated Golden Queen. I hated the ‘Rumple is evil’ mantra that they were trying to shove down our throats. But what I hated most was the fact Belle never really faced the consequences wrought by her actions or that even after twenty eight years of torture Gideon still loved Belle. If Baelfire could hate his father for a split second wrong decision that left him growing up in a strange world alone, Gideon should hate his mother just as much for allowing him to be taken by the Black Fairy and growing up in the Dark Realm alone.


	2. Chapter 2

‘Rumple!’

Belle burst into the pawnshop like a hurricane. There was no tinkle of the shop bell overhead. But there was the crunch of broken glass under foot.

It was dark. All the lamps and lightbulbs had blown. The windows broken from the inside, allowing the wind to whistle eerily in the silence.

Everything in the shop was destroyed. The glass cabinets were smashed. The tea sets shattered. The portraits were peppered with fireball burn holes. The suits of armour dismantled. The shop bell stamped flat. Snow White’s handcrafted boat reduced to splintered wood. Dreamcatchers with plucked feathers and broken webs. Burning chess pieces – the black king alone remained standing, over the no longer white queen. Shredded books – a copy of _Her Handsome Hero_ burnt to a crisp. Knife slashes in the curtains. Crushed drinking steins. Broken crystal unicorn mobile. Burning marionette puppets. Dented magic lamp. Cracked mirror. An ornate golden egg snapped in two. Hook’s hand burned charcoal black. A smashed snow globe; soaking the floor with water and paper snowflakes. A teddy bear with its head and limbs ripped off; stuffing leaking like blood. The head of the gramophone thrown across the room; the record of their wedding song broken into pieces. A glass red apple reduced to a fine powder. The pearls of Queen Eva’s necklace scattered. Fairy wands snapped in two. Clothes ripped or burned. And a cracked mirror, Belle’s pale, splintered reflection staring back at her.

This was no robbery or attack. This was self-destruction of a desperate man who had lost everything.

Belle stepped over the debris of broken treasures and went into the back room. It was even worse in here. The shelves had been pulled down, the work bench upended, the contents broken from where they’d fallen on the floor. More burn holes covered the tapestries over the bed.

The silence, the emptiness was ominous, unnerving.

‘Rumple?’

Belle gasped at the sound of crunched china under foot. Rumple was standing in the dark with his back to her, as still as a statue, leaning against the side, his head bowed. He didn’t respond. Yet even in the half light, Belle noticed his hair was distinctly longer then when she last saw him.

‘Rumplestiltskin?’

Rumple’s chuckle was more like a titter. Then an impish voice, that had once sent a quiver right through her, spoke from the shadows, sending a chill of dread down her spine.

‘Rumplestiltskin’s not at home…’ Rumple turned and approached her. His clawed hand wearing his wedding ring – the wedding ring her never took off - gripped the back of a chair. ‘Rumple’s dead…’ Rumple stepped into the light, the Dark One in Rumple’s suit, amber eyes glaring at her. ‘…now you’re alone.’

Belle’s eyes widened in horror. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare that she couldn’t wake up from. Maybe she was. Maybe she was still trapped under the Sleeping Curse and this would all just a bad dream. Any moment now Rumple would wake up her and all this would disappear. But it didn’t seem the nightmare was ever going to end.

‘Rumple…’

‘Try again.’

Belle swallowed. ‘Dark One.’

‘In the flesh. Well, _scales_. You look pale, dearie. Could it be that another one of your attempts to be a hero had backfired on you?’

‘What have you done?’ Belle demanded.

The Dark One grinned, showing his crooked rotten teeth. ‘It was you. You gave me the power to walk this world. You gave Rumplestiltskin to… the Dark One.’

Belle seized a sword from the mess on the floor (the only one not melted down or whose blade wasn’t shattered) and pointed it at the Dark One, who jumped, letting out a loud fake squeak of fear. ‘What did you do to him?’

The Dark One cackled madly. ‘What did _I _do to him? You mean what did _you_ do to him?’ He pointed a taloned figure at Belle, no longer grinning. ‘_You_ caused him pain! Without that pain he would never have surrendered his soul to me to end his agony! _That’s _– what – changed – him!’ he snarled, stepping closer until the point of the sword was digging into his chest, right over his heart. ‘I now exist in the flesh. Forever.’

‘No…’

‘You made all this possible, Belle. Rumple’s love for you was the only thing keeping me out.’ He walked around the overturned table and stooped to pick up something. ‘For as long as I have inhabited the Spinner, one thing has always held me back.’

The Dark One held up their baby’s sonogram, Rumple and Belle’s wedding photo and the drawing of young Baelfire.

‘The pull of the family he was so desperate to protect…’

He magically ignited the pictures and dropped them. Belle hurriedly put them out, dropping the sword. Her face had been burned out. The Dark One picked up Jefferson’s hat.

‘The friendships that made it impossible to forget who he used to be…’

He punched a hole through the top of the hat. The pop sounded like a gunshot in the horrified silence. He picked up the Shears of Destiny.

‘The magic that threatened to undo my most evil deeds…’

He smirked, as if enjoying a private joke and placed them back on the table. His eyes glittered maliciously.

‘And, worst of all…’ He picked up the chipped cup, the symbol of their True Love. ‘…the love that refused to give up on him… Until you _did_.’

He crushed the cup in his claw so hard he drew blood as the fragments cut into his skin. He dropped the bloodied pieces and stamped on them, crushing it with his shoe. He lifted it, revealing the broken pieces.

‘That’s Rumple’s heart. And I think you crushed it. He craved so much and yet you kept him waiting. One glance, one touch, still he just kept on waiting. And when it came, it came with strings. So he died waiting in the wings.’

As if to demonstrate it, the Dark One magically conjured an image of Rumple with Neal, Belle and their baby huddled together as a loving family unit. Then ‘Neal’ disappeared and ‘Belle’ and the baby vanished leaving Rumple alone. Every loving glance or touch ‘Belle’ gave him ‘Rumple’ lapped them up “_like a dog begging for _scraps” before she turned away. Then ‘Belle’ reached out her arms to him, a red heart and a white baby in between them, ‘Rumple’ reaching out to accept the promise of love and family. Then the Dark One made ‘Belle’ snip some invisible strings and the heart and baby popped out of existence, indicating the conditions, the ultimatums that came with the promise of her love and being a family, and that even when ‘Rumple’ had fulfilled them she took them away. Because she could. Then ‘Belle’ turned and walked away forever. ‘Rumple’ tried desperately to follow, but the Dark One cut ‘Rumple’s’ strings and he fell, landing with a splat, spread-eagled on the bloody pieces of their broken cup.

The real Belle tried to reach for ‘Rumple’ but her hand only hit broken blue patterned china.

‘You took his sons. His hope. His love. You were the part of him keeping him human. That little light inside his heart that still glowed? That was his love for you. And you snuffed it out.’

It can’t be true. It couldn’t. Rumple couldn’t be gone. He would never allow himself to give in to the Darkness. He’d fought like hell to hold on to his humanity, his ability to love. In fact she was convinced that in the library elevator he had wanted her to stop him, stop him from going too far.

‘Rumple, please,’ Belle implored him, looking deep into his eyes for a trace of the man she loved. ‘I know you’re still there. I know you haven’t completely become him yet. But you can stop this.’

‘No – _this_ has to stop now!’ shouted the Dark One, pointing a threatening finger at her. ‘This thing where you think you’ve been his friend and don’t even hear how you condescend - the way you’ve always done!’

‘Rumple, the Black Fairy took our son. I need your help to save him.’

‘Ah!’ said the Dark One triumphantly. ‘See! _Now_ you care! Because I’m a threat! Because you _need_ him, not because you w_ant _him back! Rumple knew this. Necessity brought you back to him. Not love. And when you’re done with him, you’ll toss him aside – again.’

‘No! Rumple, please –’

‘Rumple is no longer here! You are stuck with me! Treat someone like a beast enough, eventually you become one. You made the monster real. You released the beast. And you have spared me any possibility of Rumplestiltskin pushing me out this human vessel.’ He bowed Rumple’s signature bow, but mockingly so. ‘And for that, I truly thank you.’ The Dark One lifted his head, grinning. ‘No more Rumple.’

Tears filled Belle eyes. First her son, now Rumple. She’d lost them. She’d lost her family.

‘Aw, worry not, dearie. You’ll see your boy again. Fairies are such good mothers. And with the Black Fairy as his mother, how can he turn out as anything then what she is.’

_Gideon could never become that evil._ ‘He’s still good.’

‘Really? Why? Because _you’re_ his mother? Belle _holier-than-thou_ Gold? Oh, I’m sorry – _French_! Evil isn’t born, dearie – it’s made. You abandoned him with nothing but a book of fairytales and a blinkered black and white view of the world. You condemned him to a life of pain. The lessons you and that book backfiring on him and punishing not only him but the other stolen children. How can he not hate the mother who did this to him? Or the heroes who failed to save him? The same heroes who will destroy him as they must do all villains? Isn’t it awful when your children don’t turn out the way you want them to?

‘Tell me, Belle: was being a hero everything you dreamed? Was it worth it? You’ve lost your husband. You’ve lost your son. And your sham friends see you as the mother who birthed the darkest villain who has ever lived. And set the Darkness free.

‘Do you see now? Rumplestiltskin was never the threat. He was you defence. And now he’s dead.’

‘What happens now?’ Belle asked. ‘Are you going to kill me?’

‘No, no. You’re safe from me,’ the Dark One assured her.

‘I feel so relieved,’ said Belle dryly.

‘I made a deal with someone that I wouldn’t kill you. Or allow any harm to come to you.’

‘Who could elicit that from you?’

‘Rumplestiltskin.’

Belle felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach.

‘Isn’t that sweet? Even at the end, in spite of everything you’ve done to him, his last act was to ensure your safety. Even from himself. From me. And I never go back on my word.’

‘What am I supposed to do?’

‘You are a hero, so you claim to be. I’m a beast that needs slaying. And you have a Dark Spawn to stop. Maybe even sacrifice to save Storybrooke. That shouldn’t be a problem, should it? Heroism? Sacrifice? To fit in with the in-crowd? To give your provincial life some semblance of meaning? That’s more important than your loved ones, right? Let’s see if you have the _bravery_ to do what needs to be done. Good luck, little hero.’

The Dark One vanished in a cloud of red smoke, leaving Belle alone in the destruction of the shop. Of her life. Belle picked up the charred remains of their wedding picture, her Rumple smiling up at her.

She really was on her own now.

What was she going to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lines borrowed from songs ‘Waiting in the Wings (Reprise)’ and ‘Crossing the Line’ from Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure S03E01. [Contains Major Spoilers for events between Tangled and Tangled Ever After]
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgKtCOcFfi0  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ3HAS1Ct3U

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel: The Final Battle: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21174884


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